Quintessential Portland startup Cloudability to be acquired by Seattle area Apptio

There are any number of amazing Portland startups. (Clearly. That’s why I’ve been writing about them on this blog for nearly a dozen years.) But every once in a while, a startup comes along that becomes the center of gravity — the proverbial Cinderella story — for a generation of startups around here. Cloudability was very much one of those startups. And today, the denouement of that startup story begins, in the best of ways, with an exit. Cloudability has announced an agreement to be acquired by Apptio.

My first encounter with JR Storment, the cofounder of Cloudability, didn’t have anything to do with Cloudability, at all. He was simply a resident of the PIE coworking space. Working on a company called Dovie. (Fun fact: Alex Bilmes, part of the early Cloudability team, who would go on to cofound Reflect with Cloudability alum Brad Heller, worked at Dovie, too.) Then, he was suddenly working on this meet up that happened to include Mat Ellis.

And suddenly, there was a new startup in town.

Initially holed up in the Puppet offices on the Park Blocks, thanks to the generosity of Luke Kanies, they were top of mind when we converted PIE from a coworking space to an early stage startup accelerator. And after a particular amount of cajoling, they were finally convinced to apply. We selected them to join the inaugural class of our new accelerator program.

Then, they were off to the races. Joining the ranks of Techstars. Successfully raising venture capital. Giving back to the community. Winning startup awards. Growing. Mentoring. Giving back to the community. Acquiring other companies. Joining TAO and OEN. Giving back to the community. Helping Business for a Better Portland. Hosting events. And as always, giving back to the community.

Which brings us up to today.

What will the next chapter hold? That remains to be seen. All I know, without a doubt, is that they’ll continue to give back to the Portland startup community.

Turning to Cloudability, the Portland, Oregon-based company was founded in 2011, raising just under $40 million during its life as a private shop. The exit could be a nice result for Portland, the very first tech scene that I worked in. I retain a fondness for both the city and the people (shout-out to Rick Turoczy, Silicon Florist, et al).

The deal is easily the largest acquisition in Apptio’s history, Gupta said, but he declined to share specific financial details of the transaction. Cloudability had raised a total of $55 million in equity and debt funding, Ellis said.…

The deal is easily the largest acquisition in Apptio’s history, Gupta said, but he declined to share specific financial details of the transaction. Cloudability had raised a total of $55 million in equity and debt funding, Ellis said.

Cloudability employs more than 130 people, the majority of whom are in Portland at the company’s headquarters in the Pearl District. It serves more than 250 enterprise customers, including Atlassian, BP, Sony and Gannett.

Ellis has made a name as a key voice among the city’s emerging businesses. He’s working with such groups as Business for a Better Portland in hopes of encouraging equitable practices among Portland’s commercial set.

Apptio said Cloudability’s Financial Operations Platform manages more than $9 billion in enterprise cloud spending across the three major public cloud platforms. The Portland, Oregon-based startup has about 250 customers and has raised nearly $40 million, with its last funding round closing nearly three years ago. The company was beginning to wade back into the capital markets when Apptio called and “this was easily a better option than raising a Series C,” Ellis said.

It’s the latest in a series of deals for Oregon tech companies dating back to last year. The companies did not report terms of the transaction but Cloudability chief executive Mat Ellis said his company’s Portland operation is “core to the future.”

“This will accelerate our growth,” Ellis wrote in an email. He said Cloudability is “merging with an (almost) local company with a similar culture & focus.”

Apptio, which has been in business for a dozen years and sells its software through subscriptions, would expand its cloud analytics offerings by adding Cloudability’s product line and team to Apptio’s.

Apptio CEO Sunny Gupto said that Cloudability will give the company a strong foothold in optimizing cloud spending. The broader strategy for Apptio is to use Cloudability’s platform to meld business technology management software and DevOps.

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Published by Rick Turoczy

More than mildly obsessed with the Portland startup community. Founder and editor at Silicon Florist. Cofounder and general manager at PIE. Follow me on Twitter: @turoczy
View all posts by Rick Turoczy

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